Kung Fu Fighting!
Forbidden Kingdom: the Jackie Chan - Jet Li wuxia-blockbuster. Not a bad movie, actually, made more interesting by the fact that it is a loose adaptation of Journey to the West. Jackie was great, Jet was alright, and Boston Kid, who I thought would severely annoy me, was fairly inoffensive. Most astonishingly of all, Liu Yi Fei was very watchable in it. She's usually such an otherworldly beauty, but I liked her here. It was probably the down-to-earth character and the lack of emphasis on how beautiful she is, and the limited screentime. Li Bing Bing was gorgeous, (definitely a shoutout to The Bride with White Hair) and I wish she'd had a better/bigger role than just token evil girl.

Crow's Zero: Fun, fun movie about the hierarchal rankings of a wild all boy's school brimming with gangs and violence. Oguri Shun plays Genji, a new transfer student who attempts to seize control of the various classes and 'unite' Suzuran High. His main opponent is the undefeated Serizawa, played by my favourite, Yamada Takayuki. Being a manga adaptation, I didn't expect very much from this (in my head it was a kind of Gokusen knockoff), but Crow's Zero was surprisingly good. It's not groundbreaking, but it's a good example of a well-made genre film (harder to come by than you expect).

I must take this opportunity to express that I LOVE YAMADA TAKUYUKI. I always have, and he is the real reason I decided to watch this (Oguri Shun is just icing on the cake). Shun is decent in this, but his character is your typical shounen hero and not very interesting. Yamada, however, is AWESOMELY BADASS. I've seen him in a lot of things (Taiyou no Uta, H2, Tegami, Long Love Letter, Dragonhead), but this is the first time he's played this sort of character. Which is a good thing, really, because he keeps getting typecast in romantic tragedies - not that it surprises me, the guy is an excellent dramatic actor, probably the best in his age bracket. Anyway, prime example of badassery: during the final showdown he PAUSES TO REST in the middle of the fight and sits on a crate while his minions stand around him holding umbrellas. That's f*cking great.

+ 13/50 in 2008